OPINION COLUMNS

Sitting around the office at The Pilot Point Post-Signal in the early 2000s, I picked up a copy of the Wise County Messenger that was lying around.

At the time my brief history with Wise County included escaping the Mayfest storm of 1995 in Paradise, pitching in a few baseball games in Chico and getting lost on U.S. 81/287 trying to get back to Gainesville from Wichita Falls. I can’t drive past the turnoff to Farm Road 1810 without laughing to this day.

Richard Greene

But flipping through the pages of the Messenger, I quickly became enthralled with the quality of the reporting and unique page designs dreamed up by Skip Nichols and his talented cast.

A couple of jobs later, including a stint as an editor of another paper, I jumped at the chance to fill an opening as the sports editor in 2009 and join this talented staff whose commitment to community journalism is unparalleled. It’s no surprise to see the halls decorated with numerous awards.

I made a brief detour to pursue another opportunity before being welcomed back in 2014 again as sports editor.

It’s been a pleasure over the past three years to tell the stories of so many great Wise County athletes and coaches in their inspiring pursuit of excellence.

Now, I’m handing off those duties to another talented writer and reporter, Reece Waddell.

Myself, I’m moving into a new role, helping to lead the newsroom. It’s not a responsibility I take lightly following assistant publisher Kristen Tribe and others before her. To be honest, it would be daunting if not for being surrounded by other tremendous reporters – Brian Knox and Racey Burden – and staff photographer Joe Duty.

Our commitment is always the same – to share your stories, inform and at times make you think or act. Achieving those goals is how we will try to produce the best newspaper in Texas and make our community better.

We will be debuting a few new features in the paper and All Around Wise in the coming weeks that we are excited to share.

And as always, if you have a story idea or suggestion, please pass it along.

Richard Greene is the editor of the Wise County Messenger.

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